The Google Monopoly Just Cracked Open—What's Next for Higher Ed Tech?

Welcome to July's edition of the EdTech Connect Newsletter Google's recent antitrust defeat is creating new opportunities for universities to explore innovative technology alternatives, while institutions navigate student privacy concerns and AI's continued transformation of enrollment strategies.

Don't miss our Thurs, July 24 webinar (12 PM PT / 3 PM ET) where Andy Crestodina reveals how universities can leverage AI prospecting to discover hidden student questions and convert them into qualified applications—essential as students increasingly turn to AI for critical educational decisions.

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Google's Antitrust Defeat: Impact to Academia by Jeff Dillon

The ground is shifting beneath Google's feet. In April 2025, a federal judge ruled that Google illegally monopolized digital advertising, building on 2024's search monopoly case.

Remember Google's 2016 Search Appliance shutdown? Universities scrambled for alternatives—a clear signal higher education isn't a Google priority. Recent research confirms only 19% of institutions deliver great website experiences.

Current regulatory pressure creates space for genuine alternatives. Will universities seize this moment or repeat 2016's missed opportunities?

Before Classes Even Start, Students Already Know Their Classmates

Seed and pilot funding programs play a critical role in supporting innovation in higher education but managing them efficiently can be a challenge. Here are five proven strategies to streamline administrative tasks and lighten the workload:



1. Build once, use repeatedly: Create customizable, reusable form templates. Drag-and-drop builders with conditional logic ensure tailored data collection and uniformity across cycles, reducing errors and saving time. 
2. Centralize submissions: Use a single portal for all applications—allowing draft saving, direct upload of materials, and streamlined access. Centralization boosts visibility and reduces confusion around where to submit. 
3. Automate reviews: Implement tools for routing, scoring, and reminding reviewers, complete with standardized rubrics. Centralized review platforms make it faster and fairer. 
4. Accelerate decisions & notifications: Use dashboards for instant insights, then automatically notify applicants. This eliminates manual emailing and accelerates award selection. 
5. Simplify tracking & reporting: Schedule milestone and annual report collection within the system, ensuring data is ready for ROI analysis and impact reporting. 



By adopting these tactics, administrators reclaim hours each week—enabling more strategic work such as mentoring faculty, building partnerships, and boosting institutional research impact. 

Students Are Asking AI About Your School—But You Can't See It

While enrollment teams compete for shrinking search traffic, students are asking AI the questions that really matter.

Students aren't Googling "best colleges" anymore. They're asking ChatGPT: "Will computer science actually get me a $100K job?" "Is grad school worth $80K debt?" "Should I drop out and learn coding instead?"

Most enrollment teams have ZERO visibility into these high-intent conversations.

Thursday, July 24 | 12 PM PT / 3 PM ET

Andy Crestodina, Co-Founder/CMO of Orbit Media Studios with 24+ years helping 1,000+ businesses grow through content strategy, reveals the exact AI prospecting system that's helping universities discover hidden student questions and convert them into qualified applications.

While some progressive B2B companies are using this approach and seeing results, this is new to higher education institutions. Be among the first to benefit from the possibilities.

Live demo with real examples. Get your institution's custom action plan. Limited spots available. When they're gone, they're gone.

Brought to you by: Mackey Strategies & Orbit Media Studios

How Educators Are Using Pictory + Zapier to Scale Video Learning

College and university instructors are using Pictory’s new Zapier integration to streamline how they create and share video content with students.

Pictory now connects to over 8,000 apps through Zapier. That means when a professor adds new information to a Google Sheet—like assignment details or lecture notes—a short video can be created and shared automatically through email, YouTube, or the school’s LMS. No video editing or production skills needed.

This is especially useful for instructors who manage multiple courses or large class sizes. Turning key updates into short videos helps students understand material more clearly and stay more engaged.

Some professors, like Dr. Carolyn Daniels at Barry University, have already reported a significant jump in student engagement using Pictory. With the Zapier integration, it’s easier than ever to scale that success.

If you're in higher education, this is a simple way to save time while improving how students learn online.

Try Pictory for free and see how easy it is to build your first automated video workflow.

Latest Podcast Episodes



7/11 Dr. Cabrini Pak Breaks Down the Future of AI in Academia Dr. Cabrini Pak from Catholic University of America explores practical AI implementation in higher education, breaking down agentic AI applications for student advising, error rate tracking importance, and how universities can transform from "constipated dinosaurs" into agile service providers.

7/4 Beyond the Inbox: How Ashley Budd is Rethinking Alumni Engagement: Cornell University's Ashley Budd shares how she transformed from social media strategist to leading integrated alumni engagement, discussing her approach to email marketing excellence, direct mail strategy evolution, and building advocacy campaigns that mobilize thousands of alumni.

6/27 Orchestrating the Future: What Higher Ed Can Learn from Composable Architecture with Sana Remekie: Conceia CEO Sana Remekie discusses how universities can escape legacy system constraints through digital experience orchestration, implementing conversational interfaces to meet student expectations, and building omnichannel strategies for the agentic AI era.

6/20 From Hotels to Horned Frogs: Lessons in Scalable Web Management with Corey Reed: TCU's Corey Reed shares insights from hospitality to higher education, discussing practical AI for analytics and search optimization, managing content sprawl across campus departments, and building accessible digital experiences that match physical campus hospitality.

Student Privacy at Risk? EdTech Surveillance in Focus Digital surveillance tools like GoGuardian and Gaggle normalize student monitoring with concerning privacy implications as the Student Privacy Pledge ends. Campus leaders should audit EdTech privacy practices, implement transparent data protocols, and prioritize student privacy rights. Source: ListEdTech

Campaign Success: 3 Phases for Building Momentum & Results Successful campaigns require three strategic phases: planning with feasibility studies, silent leadership for major gifts, and public engagement for broad participation. Development teams should conduct feasibility studies, recruit strong leadership, and leverage milestones for visibility. Source: Mackey Strategies

Strong Evidence Harvard Doesn't Meet Accreditation Standards, Feds Say Federal agencies notified Harvard's accreditor that the university violates Title VI through deliberate indifference to antisemitic harassment, potentially jeopardizing accreditation. Leaders should review antidiscrimination policies, strengthen compliance protocols, and ensure student safety measures. Source: Higher Ed Dive

Digital Collegium

• Date: September 28-October 1, 2025
• Location: Grand Rapids, Michigan + Online (Hybrid)
• Focus: Digital marketing, web development, social media, content strategy for higher education
• Website: https://events.digicol.org/digicol25/

EDUCAUSE Annual Conference 2025

• Date: October 27-30, 2025 (in-person) + November 12-13, 2025 (online)
• Location: Nashville, Tennessee
• Focus: Higher education technology with marketing technology applications
• Website: https://events.educause.edu/annual-conference/2025

AMA Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education 2025

• Date: November 9-12, 2025
• Location: National Harbor, MD
• Focus: Premier event for higher education marketers with peer-reviewed content on branding, enrollment strategies, and marketing best practices
• Website: https://www.ama.org/events/conference/2025-ama-symposium-for-the-marketing-of-higher-education/

Highlighting EdTech Connects trending innovative technology companies transforming the higher education landscape

Common Time Pathways (Arts & Language): Provides a recruitment platform designed exclusively for student musicians—both majors and non-majors, connecting them with colleges and scholarship opportunities similar to how athletes use platforms like MaxPreps or NCSA, featuring performance videos, academic data, and preferences for comprehensive music program matching.

Learning Clues (Digital Learning Environment): Delivers an AI-driven educational platform designed specifically for colleges and universities that connects securely with institutional LMS platforms like Canvas, Blackboard, and Moodle to ingest course materials—videos, syllabi, lecture notes, Jupyter notebooks—and builds a searchable knowledge base for enhanced student learning support.

Yellowdig (AI Tutoring): Creates a virtual classroom that leverages an understanding of human behavior and gameful technology to build healthy online-learning communities, primarily used in curricular settings, but also works great to build co-curricular, faculty or other specialized communities for enhanced student engagement and collaboration.

Statushub (Service Management): Provides real-time status updates for systems and services, primarily focusing on incident communication for colleges, particularly useful for maintaining transparent operations and reducing stress during critical system outages like Student Information Systems or Learning Management Systems.

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